QoL Archer/Bard Gameplay Rework - A small or big tweek are welcome

Hello, I want to suggest some changes for the bard class in the game.
I don't know about you, but I've always played with bow classes and felt a sense of satisfaction at being able to have movement, fast attacks and dodges in the class. Filling your archer or ranger fantasy with movement, fast attack speedy and lethal attacks.
Unfortunately, I can't feel that satisfaction or desire with the current archer and bard class scheme in-game.
I think one of the big problems with the ingame class is how stale and stuck its animations are at the moment. To that end, I'd like to suggest a few qualities of player life emphasizing the archery theme.

01° Reduce the activation and attack time of common skills like Heavy Shot and Burst Shot. Instead of the archer taking too long to load an arrow, why not reduce this loading time to something quick and constant?

02° A change of gameplay with a focus on fast and constant auto-attacks would be interesting. It would increase the overall damage of the class and we would still have the skills to activate at their recharge times.

03° A dodging and rolling skill would be welcome. Something that would allow the player to constantly move away from mobs/mechanics. Perhaps something like the Dancer's En Avant skill. Something like three charges and on the last free directional roll, a guaranteed Skill critical hit. This would make the class more agile and bring a certain new mechanic to the gameplay.

04° A basic rework of the Archer class is welcome. Archers don't have many skill combos and I believe they have a lot of "loose" skills in their kit. Skill combos with short or instant action times that combine with each other would be great.

05° I also believe that bards need to improve their playing style and mechanics. We know that their music needs an increase in damage and the class in general needs more fluidity, quality of life and good mechanics that emphasize the fantasy of playing a bard. Why not be able to play the harp, piano, drums, flutes, guitars and have global effects on the team when charging skills? How magical would it be to have a bard playing the harp in a savage raid while promoting healing, positive effects and actions to team members while giving damages to the mobs and boss monster? Debuffs to enemies are also welcome, of course!

What about you? What rework ideas do you have for archers/bards in the future?

I’d love to see the main three songs get reworked so we actively use them instead of just pressing them once every 45 seconds. Maybe make them cost MP again to compensate.

I’d also love to see the return of Foe Requiem to debuff the enemy, and Song of Valour for regen (it’s literally already in the game SE you even don’t need to make it lol).

Unfortunately it’s been two expansions since Stormblood and the only ‘song’ related ability we’ve had was Radiant Finale at 90. And even then, it’s just part of another 120s conveyor belt rotation and not something you can actively support the party with. I highly doubt Bard will get anything new in Dawntrail besides yet another laser beam strike . I mean, as Bards we barely even use actual arrows anymore lol, it’s all magical beams of light. Pick a lane SE!

Edit: though to me personally, the more magical Bard is the better, I don’t think that’s quite what players envisioned for a physical dps archer lol

How many reworks had he allready? 2? 3?
I dont think, that its a good idea, to make big changes again.

Reducing his CD for faster attacks is ok. I dont have the numbers in my head. But it looks a little weird, when archer need as long to shot again, as caster needs to cast a spell.

The part with auto attack is something, i can not image. Auto attack is a nice extra. But you dont notice them, because of the allways using of skill.

The Dodge skill has the archer allready, with his back jump (rolling would be questionable, bow and quiver would be in the way and he should lose his arrows in the move). I would only increase the distance of the jump. It looks very short, compaired to rdm and drg.

The combo part is a taste thing. It would feel better. Esspecial when you think about, that mch and dancer has something similary. The bard feels more like a caster in this term, who are mostly using one skill and has a lot of lose skills (at last, is it similary to blm, where i would like a combo System to).
At last could the second attack skill be more constant. It procs randomly and make it more a prio system.

The music part is the biggest problem, i have with your idea. I dont like the bard in the first place. He didnt fit together with the archer. The bow is a two handed weapon, who need to be constantly used. And the bow is big.
The music items of the bard are two handed items to and should be used all the time, for creating the music. Its weird, that they connected both into on class.
At last are they making it minimal believable, by having sometimes a weapon, that is a cross bread between harf and bow.
Giving the bard any other Instrument didnt fit realy. Where did they wear them and change the weapon and music items in between (ok, whe have that allready with the fluet by the speed skill and the harf by starting a music skill).

I think, the base of the bard is ok, like he is now. The archer bard is more in the focus, as the music bard. And i think, most people who choice bard, are doing it for the archer part (at last was it for me with my first chara in hw times). Maybe, remove the dots (dont like dots in general, why not do the whole dmg at once) and give some more shot attacks (even, when i dont can image more variation of shots, like whe have know, even the magic arrows are covering all variation i have in mind). And maybe, change the gauge of the songs to i down timer. Like with all other time limited skills. Its a little weird to have a skill, who shows you, how long you allready use it, instant of, how much time is left.
And, maybe increase the dmg of the attacks. The buffs are only time limited extra. It feels bad, if the normal dmg is much lower, when you are solo.

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Originally Posted by Keichi

The music part is the biggest problem, i have with your idea. I dont like the bard in the first place. He didnt fit together with the archer. The bow is a two handed weapon, who need to be constantly used. And the bow is big.
The music items of the bard are two handed items to and should be used all the time, for creating the music. Its weird, that they connected both into on class.
At last are they making it minimal believable, by having sometimes a weapon, that is a cross bread between harf and bow.
Giving the bard any other Instrument didnt fit realy. Where did they wear them and change the weapon and music items in between (ok, whe have that allready with the fluet by the speed skill and the harf by starting a music skill).

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‘Bards’ in the context of Final Fantasy have never actually been Archers or even attackers. They’ve traditionally always been mages equipped with harps that support the party. Unfortunately for FFXIV, the developers made the extremely poor decision to take the traditional jobs ‘Bard’ and ‘Ranger’, and mash them up into the same job. As a result, it’s practically impossible for the job to ever perform satisfyingly as either job. Bard can never be a full archery focused job because that’s not what a Bard is. It can never be a fully musical / instrument wielding magic job, because that’s not what a ffxiv Bard.

It’s really sad, but they’ve essentially designed Bard to be having a permanent identity crisis and refuse to ever go back on their mistake. I wish they’d separate the jobs and make them both their own thing so everyone can be happy (Archers and Bards), but that’s simply impossible (apparently)

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Originally Posted by Connor

It’s really sad, but they’ve essentially designed Bard to be having a permanent identity crisis and refuse to ever go back on their mistake. I wish they’d separate the jobs and make them both their own thing so everyone can be happy (Archers and Bards), but that’s simply impossible (apparently)

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Ya know there are also plenty of people who like 14's lore of Bard being an archer. Most of the dissatisfaction comes instead from how much they've screwed up its playability since it's most popular iteration in Stormblood.

I know it's changed (crits and then DoTs entirely not mattering for procs, weakening DoTs, lengthening songs and making their effect on the party weaker, removal of support songs, Foe Requiem and Palisade), but I wonder if it's truly that BRD has changed much from its popular StB iteration or if instead the game has just changed so much around it that where it once excelled or felt unique it now is outclassed or overcomplicated by easier to play jobs. I compare it to StB's other popular offering of RDM, which has especially in EW been outshined as a spare rezzer by SMN because of how simple SMN is to play.

The big one being DNC, which dealt so much more direct damage than BRD and provided so much more party damage and healing initially that they've had to buff actions like Nature's Minne to affect the whole party and reintroduce passive buffs on songs.

They have also removed managing major resources like MP and TP, which was originally BRDs area if support. Running OOM barely happens anymore as there's so many more oGCD healing and mitigation tools on ALL jobs, and TP doesn't even exist.

Warden's Paeon had a niche carved out for it with WAR needing a dispel every 90 sec through early StB, now we're lucky to get a raid tier that they remember Esuna exists.

And same goes for bosses with multiple attackable targets, where BRD has always shined. There's fewer opportunities in general, from dungeons to Ultimates.

I guess I'm saying its playability feels diminished but not because it feels significantly different to play since StB, if that makes sense. I don't tend to play a ton of BRD though (favorite version was HW actually, I just really liked how oGCD cast time weaponskill Empyreal Arrow felt, and the most fun I've had with the job was Whorleater Unreal at the end of ShB), so I may be missing some nuances to changes. At least it feels still feels distinct from DNC and MCH in how it's played.

I'd love more utility on bard in general (physical ranged) Even in the Job guide it mentioned Phys ranged providing support.

Alot of the issues that ranged has, is somewhat related to just utility being hard to make especially when you can only have so much mitigation and healing... It's already a issue with healer design being so OGCD heavy that any of that wouldn't have massive value, partly why I think they really need to look at Tank, healer, ranged, even other DPS jobs in general with utility, Because having team based skills is what makes jobs interactive and unique on a different level, compared to just a rotational difference (which is good obviously, but theirs only so many "different" rotations you can have).

first I'd argue just giving ranged better role actions... like Leg and foot graze? ok then lol. I could See Bard as a boosting sort of job (kinda already is), Speed boost? any sort of recovery ability? (makes sense lore wise despite bard getting nothing like that), Idk bard feels more like a archer to me then a "bard"

I just really hope Ranged in general get more utility and more of a reason to be brought outside of they bring the 1% buff for existing.

I would like to see more specialized songs that utilize resources (MP or even some sort of new bar powered by one of the songs) that we deploy for specific effects instead of mostly just changing personal proc flavor. Think of a skill check where say every GCD with two oGCDs adds resource, or some other way to reward execution.

We really need culling of all these buffs spread to every class, with healers getting the mitigation cooldowns and ranged supports getting the utility/damage buffs.

Sadly, what I expect from 7.0 is removal of DoTs, and a third stage to our finisher, then calling it a day.

Hot take but i want Powerful Shot from PvP. Cast time and all, that ability feels good.

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Originally Posted by Mecia

Hot take but i want Powerful Shot from PvP. Cast time and all, that ability feels good.

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Gimme Powerful Shot's mechanics, with Burst Shot's animations/sound design pleeeeease!

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Originally Posted by Mecia

Hot take but i want Powerful Shot from PvP. Cast time and all, that ability feels good.

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Yeah in PvP it feels like an actual archer, much better what ever this is in PvE